Tainan-based World Vegetable Center helps feed those in need through seed research

Tainan-based World Vegetable Center helps feed those in need through seed research

2023-09-03

Last week we looked at the work of the World Vegetable Center, and how it breeds new crop cultivars and stores the seeds of various crops. Join us today as we explore the way the center’s seeds are shared with people who need them, and how the sharing process has been made more efficient in recent decades through various partnerships with developing countries. Here’s part two of our two-part series.

The World Vegetable Center is headquartered in Taiwan and has branches in different regions of the world including Southeast Asia, South Asia and Africa. Together, they share the tasks of seed collection, conservation and breeding for every variety of crop.

Horticulturalist Herbaud Zohougbogbo visited Taiwan to work with other experts on tackling the destruction of Africa’s hot peppers by disease. In his native Benin, he assists farmers in increasing their yields.

Herbaud Zohougbogbo
World Vegetable Center
We also teach farmers effective fertilization techniques, and teach them to identify pests and diseases. In this way, problems can be detected as early as possible during tomato cultivation, and these diseases can be effectively combated.

Here in Benin’s coastal area of Grand Popo, tomatoes fill baskets following a harvest. This is one of the results of the center’s efforts.

Herbaud Zohougbogbo
World Vegetable Center
We worked with some of the farmers, teaching them how to trellis tomatoes. This let them increase yield on small plots of land. You don’t necessarily need large plots, and using large plots actually increases risk.

The World Vegetable Center is a nonprofit organization, and is funded by the governments of various countries and by industry. The agricultural techniques that come out of its research are also shared with the world for free.

When a new strain is developed, the center works with a seed company or seedling farm, and promotes use of the seeds by farmers, bringing the new crop to market and on to the consumer’s home.

The crop varieties that had the best worldwide reception are its tomatoes. Since 1978, the center has sent more than 700 varieties of crops to farmers around the world, and tomatoes have accounted for more than one-third of those. Nearly 250 varieties of tomatoes have been sent to 51 countries, each variety having different shapes, colors and other unique characteristics.

Yan Jo-yi
World Vegetable Center
On a global market scale, tomatoes are a pretty major crop. The reason they are so widely consumed is that there are so many ways to eat them. They can be eaten raw, they can be cooked or used in dishes, or they can be treated like other fruits.

Developing a new crop variety takes five to eight years. In the case of tomatoes, the hybridization process involves manually removing the plant’s pollen, and using it to pollinate the flowers of other tomato plants.

Before the crop varieties bred here are sent to other countries to be grown, they are put through tests of their nutritional content. Crops are an important source of nutrition for developing countries, especially for the children in those countries. For this reason, the center also promotes programs to establish gardens in the schoolyards of schools in Africa and Southeast Asia.

At Tanzania’s Baraa Elementary School, the center works with an international NGO to provide high-quality crop varieties for growing in the school’s garden.

Sarah Ellis
iThemba Projects
The reason we started the garden project was because we were very aware that many children were not getting proper nutrition. We were lucky in that we had a large piece of land. The World Vegetable Center was very helpful, they gave us their original seeds, and we’re still growing plants from those original seeds.

Lin Yan-jung
World Vegetable Center
We train a group of instructors on good growing techniques, who then go to the schools to impart that knowledge. The instructors will also teach them how to cook the crops, and how they are best consumed. To help them get the most nutritional value out of the crops, we prepare recipes for them. This also helps make the crops more appealing to young children.

Tsvetelian Stoilova
World Vegetable Center
They harvest their vegetables, and after they use for cooking and eating during lunch time to receive micronutrients and vitamins. And we know that one of the main problems in East African countries is vitamin A deficiency.

When the schoolchildren return home at the end of the school day, they can teach their parents these techniques in turn.

Planting crops at home is a healthy practice, and the techniques learned also help improve the lives of farmers.

Lin Yan-jung
World Vegetable Center
The well-being of women and children is an issue of focus around the world. So, we thought about how women could have incomes. Women spend a large portion of their time at home, so if they have a garden near them they can grow vegetables. This will be a source of food for them, and they can also take the surplus they grow to sell in the market, giving them some income.

Conservation and breeding of crops can ensure food abundance for human beings in the future, but for some researchers there are also other motivations.

For American horticulturist Derek Barchenger, improving the lives of farmers in developing countries is a major motivating factor.

Derek W. Barchenger
World Vegetable Center
Pepper is packed full of nutrition. What it’s good for – especially chile – is income generation. So you can get a lot of return, a lot of cash value, in a small farm. To be very honest, when I think about breeding, I’m not thinking about the consumer. I’m thinking about the farmer. If a farmer, one farmer, can make more money, and can send his or her kid to school, or something like this, for me this is the best reward I could ask for.

The seeds that this Tanzanian woman, Janeth, plants in her garden came from the center.

Janeth
Tanzanian resident
I now have nightshade, string beans and eggplants in my garden, and I don’t have to go to the market and spend money. I have my own vegetable garden. The nightshade the center gave me is better than the variety that grew here before. The original one was too bitter, but this one doesn’t have that problem. I am proud that the nightshade grows well. I used to only grow corn, but now the children can also eat other vegetables, and life is easier.

The crops bred at the center are an asset shared with the entire planet. Today, in Tanzania, half the tomatoes grown came from seeds shared by the center, and in India, the center’s peppers have grown very popular.

Derek W. Barchenger
World Vegetable Center
About 14% of the chile cultivars being grown in India right now are derived from World Veg. So, 14% doesn’t sound like a lot, but in people, that’s more than a quarter of a million farmers – just in India. So it’s a large number of people. The problem is with India there’s so much chile being grown, that 14% is a lot.

Good-quality seeds can bring hope during a time of crisis and barrenness.

The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake triggered a tsunami in South and Southeast Asia, which in turn caused disasters in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India and other countries. As part of emergency relief efforts, the center cooperated with a seed company to send seed packages to disaster-struck areas.

Lin Li-chu
World Vegetable Center
We sent seeds to disaster-struck areas in Indonesia and Sri Lanka. These efforts proved to be ineffective, as people in those areas said the seeds were for crops they don’t normally eat, and don’t know how to grow.

The center’s first attempt at providing aid during a disaster failed to meet its expectations. Five years later, in 2009, Typhoon Morakot struck Taiwan. Those forced by the typhoon to relocate to modular housing, as well as farmers whose land was destroyed, received emergency relief seed packages

Lin Li-chu
World Vegetable Center
The areas where these modular houses are set up don’t have much land for planting things. In some cases they just ended up planting the seeds on a traffic island, which didn’t produce any crops. However, the seeds we sent to farmers produced harvests, which they shared with neighbors and those living in nearby areas. Some people ended up with crops they had never seen before, but still found to be very delicious. The farmers ended up keeping the seeds and continuing to grow those crops.

After its experiences with two natural disasters, the center realized that crops that take only one or two months to grow are most helpful to those recovering. Fast-growing crops can quickly be sold for income, allowing people to get back on their feet sooner.

In the years that followed, Haiti was hit by a devastating earthquake in 2010, Thailand was hit with drought in 2011, and Mali faced civil war in 2013. After each of these crises, the center sent seeds to help with the recovery process.

Lin Li-chu
World Vegetable Center
The seeds we choose to send out are targeted. They are for crops typically eaten in the developing countries where they are sent. They are also for crops that grow quickly, that don’t need many resources invested in them to grow, and that are less impacted by pests and disease. Most importantly, they must be very nutritious crops. We have great partners we cooperate with in every area we send seeds to. They teach locals how to cultivate the crops we send the seeds for.

A half century after its founding in Taiwan, the World Vegetable Center has now successfully developed over 700 new strains of crops. With challenges always on the horizon, the center will continue its important mission of ensuring food abundance.